NEARLY a quarter - 23 per cent - of Italians feel totally unrepresented either by a single person or institution in public life. A whopping 96.2 per cent have little or no faith in Italian government, while only 4.6 per cent feel, their interests are looked after, by political parties.
As Italians prepare, to vote next Sunday in Italy's the general election in four years, the above new statistics (based on a survey by a private research institute of 6,500 citizens), only confirm the most obvious suspicions of any long term observer of modern Italy.
Namely this is that, for the time being, and notwithstanding the peaceful, Tangentopoli revolution that hastened the end of the Cold War era of Christian Democrat/Socialist dominated Italian politics two years ago, a majority of Italians believe that nothing has really changed.
Nor can the cynical voter take much comfort from research carried out by the former Democratic Left and excommunist senator, Emmanuele Macaluso, also published last week. Mr Macaluso examined the political curricula of all candidates contesting the 705 single seat constituencies next Sunday (474 in the Chamber of Deputies and 231 in the Senate). He found that no less than 366 candidates were ex Christian Democrat with their numbers being almost evenly distributed between the centre right and centre left coalitions.
Such a statistic could be misleading. At face value, it certainly suggests that a large slice of the political establishment has successfully "recycled" itself, perhaps intent on resuming the corrupt, clientelist and self serving ways which marked the last 20 years of Italian public life.
Such an analysis, however understandable, is too simplistic. Significant changes cannot he effected overnight. Italian democracy is currently at the "rebuilding in progress" state. In such conditions, elements of the past have inevitably hung on or recycled" themselves. It is too simplistic to criminalise the entire Christian Democrat party, thus denying that it also contained honest servants of the Italian state.
That former Christian Democrats also end up on both sides of the new post 1992, left right bi polar Italian system is entirely logical since the DC was always a broadly based party.
However, the presence of "recycled" figures on either side adds just one more confusing element. Both the centre right and centre left have laid claim to being the "new" in Italian politics.
In such a context, emphasis, is inevitably laid on the form rather than the content of the message and hence this election like that of two years ago, will be won, lost or (as the best available information suggests), drawn on the televisual air waves.
Despite the TV gimmickry, however, Italian voters next Sunday will have to ask themselves some difficult questions is the centre right leader, the media tycoon, Silvio Berlusconi, really a brilliant entrepreneur ready to put his abilities at the service of the nation or is he a former P2 member masquerading as a democrat and intent on using government to serve the interests of his media empire?
Is the centre left leader, economics Prof Romano Prodi, capable of providing stable government at the head of a ram shackle coalition which extends from the current conservative caretaker Prime Minister, Lamberto Dini, a banker, to the old communist party (PDS)? Or is he too a recycled Christian Democrat destined to create chaos and confusion with his motley band".
Over to the Italian voter.